Lady Buffs sweep rival TSU

Tarleton State's Flynn Harrell (7) hits into a block by West Texas A&M's Lacy Hayes, center, and Erin Dougherty in their Lone Star Conference match Saturday at the WT Fieldhouse in Canyon. No. 14 WT won in three sets.

“It was a big rivalry,” said WT outside hitter Ashley Davis, who had a team-high 14 kills. “We knew we had to come in tough because they did break our streak. They always want to beat it. It just shows that we’ve improved so much. We came out there fighting and played a great game all around. Being at home in ‘The Box,’ we don’t lose here. We knew we had a job to do, and we came out here and did it.”

Tarleton State coach Mary Schlinder said her team made too many mistakes.

“They played well,” Schlinder said. “They are tough to beat in their gym. It’s exciting to have an opportunity to play a team that’s nationally ranked. Hopefully, next time we see them, it goes differently. They are a solid team. I feel like we fought at times. There are things we obviously need to do more consistently.”

“We’ve worked on that a lot,” WT coach Jason Skoch said. “We beat a very athletic team in Tarleton on defense.”

WT battled through the final two sets. WT led 21-18 in the second set but ended up facing four set points before Stormi Lancaster, Dougherty and Sarah Martin closed out the set win. WT trailed 27-26 when Lancaster got a kill down the middle and off a defender to tie it. Dougherty then laid a block on Tarleton’s Nikki McNorton, who led her squad with 13 kills, to give WT the lead. Martin then took the final set and drilled it down the left side for the win.

WT used that momentum to jump to a huge lead in set three. The Lady Buffs trailed 5-4 when they went on a 13-1 scoring run to grab a commanding 17-6 lead. Tarleton State closed back to within six before WT put it away.

“I think we took momentum from the second game and went in there strong,” Davis said. “That gave us the lead in that third game, then we kind of laid off a little bit. We were waiting for other people to get the job done. I think we realized once they started scoring a little bit that we needed to.”

Skoch said this was the beginning of a tough week of matches.

“That was the most important thing,” Skoch said. “I thought Tarleton played good. We beat a team that beat us, and we won 3-0. I thought we responded well overall. I’m very happy because the girls are starting to lead themselves. I’m happy that we are showing signs of improving. This starts a brutal week. We play Midwestern then we have Abilene (Christian) and Angelo (State). This is a very tough week. We have to bring this again, for three more matches at least. If we come through unscathed, I will be impressed.”